Daily Mail Model Village sign

Daily Mail Model Village sign

This sign came from the entrance of the Daily Mail Model Village in Welwyn Garden City. The village was built in response to a housing crisis after the First World War. Cheaper building materials and methods were being developed, and the idea was to display these together in one place so they could be studied and compared. Unfortunately their plans for 100 houses were massively over-ambitious; the project had to be baled out by the Garden City Company who built 41 houses on six acres demonstrating 16 different systems of housing construction with all the latest appliances and fittings. The Ideal village opened on 2nd March 1922 and was visited by so many people that special trains were laid on from Kings Cross. After three months the houses were sold as planned, and the village was absorbed into the Garden City. Eventually the sign was torn down by labourers (ex-soldiers) or residents but it was recovered and donated to the museum by the Garrod family.

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